We have new information about the company operating the crane that tipped over Wednesday at Deaconess Hospital. The crane was removing a cooling tower from the hospital roof when it tipped and slammed into some cars. It came to rest in a backyard after missing power lines and crashing through a fence. No one was hit or hurt in the process.

After reviewing safety records, it turns out this is not the first accident involving the company operating this crane.  Rent-A-Crane was involved in a fatal accident on the Chesapeake campus in 2010.  Michael Parsons, 42, was killed when something fell off a crane there.

OSHA also listed Rent-A-Crane as a company cited in a crane accident death in Dallas in 2007.  Rent A Crane released this statement Thursday afternoon:

“The incident that occurred yesterday at Deaconess Hospital is under investigation and the company is not able to comment at this time. With respect to the unfortunate accident that occurred in 2010 in Oklahoma City, the Rent-A-Crane family was deeply saddened by the loss of Michael Parsons, who was a highly qualified crane operator and valuable employee. Contrary to recent news reports, while litigation has been filed, Rent-A-Crane is not a party to that litigation and has not been sued. Rather, Mr. Parson’s estate and another injured employee claim, among other things, that the accident was caused by a defective crane design and inadequate warnings. Rent-A-Crane remains 100 percent committed to a safe working environment for its employees and customers.” – Ryan Leonard, attorney for Rent-A-Crane of Oklahoma, Inc.

More digging shows the laws about crane operations in Oklahoma are changing.  Right now the state does not require crane operators to be certified.  However that will not be the case in a few years.  We’re told the state will require all crane operators to be certified by 2014.

We do not know if the crane operator in Wednesday’s accident was certified or not, but most companies do require the certification for their employees even though the state does not yet demand it.

Source:

http://www.kfor.com/news/local/kfor-hospital-crane-accident-not-first-for-crane-company-20120202,0,7255719.story

Thankfully no one was injured in the incident, although the operator was checked out by an ambulance at the scene and the cooler is probably a write-off, while three cars were badly damaged according to local reports.

The photographs and information that we have been sent reveals little, however the ‘lie’ of the overturned crane suggests there was some form of failure with one of the front outriggers, most likely – but not necessarily ground related.

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14113/

“This is a one hundred percent special design by our engineering team, specifically for this valued customer,” Mark Monteiro, VP Special Projects at Gunnebo Johnson Corporation, states.

Mark has overall responsibility for the project at Gunnebo Johnson. He says he and his team are more than happy to be working with the Asian Hercules III project.

“This is the largest order in history for the entire corporation. We’re delighted to be a part of such a large and important piece of work”, says Joe Bridgeman, Vice President, International Sales and Marketing.

Innovative Lifting Beam Design

Gunnebo started working on the Asian Hercules III project back in 2008. But the enormous investment was held off due to the world economic crisis at the time. In February of 2011 the owner of Asian Hercules III, Asian Lift Pte., finally brought the project back to the table. Joe Bridgeman, Vice President, International Sales and Marketing, and Ken Sellers, Vice President of Engineering at Gunnebo Johnson, were the ones who concluded the deal in China.

“Asian Lift Pte. is a long-time and loyal customer. The key to our satisfied customers is the innovative lifting beam design that we’ve created. It’s lighter and stronger compared to traditional lifting beam systems”, Ken Sellers, VP of Engineering says.

A Big Sister

Mark Monteiro worked for Gunnebo Johnson for over twenty years and has a unique experience and knowledge. He was also involved in the Asian Hercules II project, initiated in 1996. Even though he was in retirement by 2010, Gunnebo Johnson asked him to come back in May 2011, to lead the Asian Hercules III program forward and to assure the Gunnebo Johnson tackle system was completed and delivered on schedule.

“The similarities between the two projects are very strong – apart from the fact that everything is much bigger this time around. Asian Hercules III is like a big sister, with greater reach and much higher lifting capacity. It’s a spectacular piece of lifting equipment.”

Assembled in China

Mark Monteiro’s role is to direct all activities and coordinate the products, regardless if they are manufactured in USA, Italy, Mexico or any other country. All will be shipped to the shipyard in Nantong, China, where the vessel and the crane itself will be built and assembled. The design of the project is modular; but due to the size of the assemblies, one of the major challenges will be to ship and handle the physical size of the enormous parts.

“Some of the parts will weigh over one hundred tons, simply because it’s impossible to make them any smaller. We need to pre-assemble them for fit, disassemble them into modules for handling, and get them to the vessel without damaging the parts or the paint.”

Source:

http://wireropeexchange.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/gunnebo-johnson-and-franklin-offshore-land-asian-hercules-iii-project/#more-2706

Harris Calnan Construction was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £66,244, while its director Neil Harris was fined £7,500 with £25,000 of costs.

The two were prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and pleaded guilty to breaching regulation 8(1)(c) of the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

Carpenter Craig Page, 26, was working on the building site in Denning Road, Hampstead when a mini-crawler crane overturned while attempting to lift a skip full of concrete, that was well beyond its capacity. The boom of the crane struck Page, causing crush injuries to his upper body. He died at the scene.

The HSE investigation showed the company failed to properly plan or supervise lifting operations on the site. The Central Criminal Court heard the construction site was poorly managed by the company who failed to ensure the lifting operation was carried out safely.

Click here to see the original accident report

HSE inspector, Dominic Ellis, said: “From the start of this project the defendants failed to control even the most basic of risks on the construction site. These failings ultimately resulted in the tragic and entirely avoidable death of Mr Page. The defendant’s failure to appropriately plan, manage and supervise lifting operations on site led to this incident. The attempted lift of a liquid concrete load at a distance far in excess of the crane’s safe working parameters was wholly inappropriate. The potential for overturn in these circumstances is well known, entirely foreseeable and could have been simply prevented.”

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14091/

The men were walking along the crane’s jib when one of them fell. The emergency services were called to the site in Bower Street, following a report that a man had been injured on the site.

Police established a crime scene and the area was examined by forensic specialists. The man’s next of kin have been informed. Detectives have been interviewing a number of witnesses to the incident but said that there does not appear to be any suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident.

Vertikal Comment

Over the years there have been numerous reports of people climbing tower cranes at night for a lark. The majority of the time they get away with it and in many cases the site workers are unaware that anyone has even been there. The only clues being photos or video clips posted on web sites that cater for that sort of thing.

The risk of falling is always there though, especially if drink is involved. The sad thing is that the site and the contractor are likely to face some disruption, regarding questions on site and crane security.

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14060/

The crane had been working on the Moses Wheeler Bridge between Stratford and Milford and was being loaded for transport to a job in Pennsylvania. We understand that the trailer has already reversed under the jacked machine and it was being chained down, when a link in one of the chains broke and over it went.

Oddly the crane’s boom was elevated, which may well have caused the instability/overturning moment? Thankfully no one was hurt in the incident and leaking diesel was successfully contained. A couple of cars were clipped by the falling boom.

The crane will be recovered later today.

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14054/

He said that following a careful investigation and collection of evidence, the city’s safety committee and accident investigation team had issued its report to the provincial safety committee and that this had now been reviewed and approved at an executive meeting of the Jiuquan city government.

He added the investigation determined that the collapse was caused by the crane being set up out of level and at an angle exceeding the cranes design parameters. As a result, as the crane slewed side on to the slope, the side or lateral stresses on the boom from the 318 tonne load, caused it to buckle and fracture.

Lu then went on to outline those with initial responsibility, for ensuring that the crane and the lift were safe. They included: Longbao Wind Power Engineering, Gansu, Ning Xia Tianxin Construction and Development, Sinovel Technology (Gansu), Shanghai Holy construction machinery and crane manufacturer Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Technology Development.

While administrative penalties were issued to the above, the report went on to apportion direct blame and responsibility for the accident and in this Zoomlion appears to have been exonerated and cleared of all fault. The main causes were attributed to the operator, the general management, plant management and safety managers at the contractor and production facility, all of which led to an overall lax system of safety.

Six individuals were accused of being directly responsible for the collapse – which took five lives – and will face further penalties, while a further three had their qualification and operating certificates revoked.

Click here to see original report

Click here for the follow up report

Vertikal Comment

We have to admit to finding the intricacies of the Chinese legal system and local regulations slightly difficult to understand. However in essence this report states clearly that the crane had no fabrication or design faults that contributed to this sad incident. It clearly places all the blame on the fact that the crane was set up on a mat/platform that was out of level – (fore and aft).

Some of the photographs certainly appear to show a slight slope and the superstructure appears to have been approaching or even passed the 90 degree point, at which the boom would have been subjected to the maximum lateral forces caused by the slope.

Any operator or crane man on site at the time should have spotted this by where the load was in relation to the boom and the cab. Given that this was a new crane it is also surprising that there were no manufacturer staff present to help the crane team set up for the first time.

While smaller crawler cranes, especially duty cycle cranes, can handle some significant side loads, more sophisticated lift cranes are rarely designed to accommodate them to the same degree, so setting up on a level base is critical. This incident smacks of inexperience, lack of training and of not taking what is a highly sophisticated and dangerous piece of equipment, seriously enough. There is much to learn here.

On another note it is refreshing to see how promptly this incident was investigated and a report put together so that others could learn and the innocent were not left in limbo for excessive periods. Even in the case of a major accident such as this the causes are usually clear within the first 48 hours, and the deeper underlying causes within a month or two – this type of information rarely becomes clearer with the passage of time. The UK for one could learn a great deal from the time frames involved with this investigation.

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14046/

The crane was working on the construction of the second Waal bridge when it started to sink into the soft ground and went over backwards. Its boom came down onto the existing bridge structure blocking traffic. It also struck the cab of a truck on the bridge. Thankfully neither the truck driver, nor any one else was injured in the incident and it is hoped that the road will be cleared later this evening.

The crane is owned and operated by specialist contractor Voorbij Funderingstechniek of Amsterdam. Its staff on site confirmed that the crane simply sank while being manoeuvred. We have been unable to obtain an official statement this evening.

The falling boom also left two men stranded on the top of one of the bridge support pillars under construction. They were rescued after an hour by an aerial lift.

Vertikal Comment

This is a highly unusual incident for the Netherlands, due to the ground almost always being soft crawler cranes invariably work on timber mat platforms. This company is highly experienced in this type of application so we can only assume that the crane came off of the mats?

Hopefully we will be able to provide more information later.

Source:

http://www.vertikal.net/en/news/story/14029/

The 16000 is owned by crane rental firm Amrik Singh & Sons Crane Services, who acquired the crane in mid 2011 from TIL Limited, Manitowoc crawler and mobile crane dealer in India. The project involves the erection of more than 50 turbines of 2.1 MW capacity, each taking two to three days to assemble. The assembly includes lifting 85 tonne nacelles on towers up to 80 metres tall.

Prior to purchasing the 16000 the Amrik Singh team used a combination of cranes for wind turbine projects, including 550 tonne capacity Krupp mobile crane, plus some smaller cranes around 250 tonnes capacity and larger lattice boom mobile cranes up to 800 tonnes. Three or four of these were needed to erect wind turbines to 2.1 MW capacity. Now the 16000 can erect these turbines on its own and has the capability to install larger turbines.

The Amrik Singh fleet includes 20 Krupp all terrains, including a 550 tonne capacity Krupp 500 GMT. The 400 tonne capacity 16000 is its largest new crawler crane, and also its first Manitowoc.

Source:

http://www.khl.com/magazines/international-cranes-and-specialized-transport/detail/item70388/Manitowoc-16000-on-Indian-wind-project/

As a result, the 6 tonne capacity Unic URW-706 spider crane, from GGR Group, became the highest ever compact crane in the UK, claimed the company.

The crane was dismantled into two sections and lifted by tower crane onto the eighty-seventh floor of the building which is due to be completed later this year. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano and developed by Sellar Property Group, the Shard will reach 310 m in height and accommodate a hotel, offices, apartments, restaurants and a viewing gallery.

GGR’s crane and specialist operators will be working from the rooftop for the next few months to lift glass panels from a storage unit on the sixty-second floor onto the levels above on the north and west sides of the building. A total of 11,000 angled glass panels will eventually cover The Shard’s façade which has been specially designed to reflect the London skyline.

“The 1.67m wide Unic URW-706 can be easily dismantled, weighs just 7.9 tonnes, yet provides 6, 000 kg of lifting power, making it a cost effective and flexible alternative to traditional tower cranes,” said a company spokesperson.

The variable outrigger positions of the crane made it an ideal choice to work within the limited space of The Shard’s spire construction, added GGR. The outriggers were moved with millimeter precision using radio remote control before the crane was lowered onto the building’s four main support columns, with little margin for error. The boom was then lifted up to the eighty-seventh floor and reattached to the crane, ready for work to commence.

“This iconic landmark is going to make a big impact across the London skyline and we are thrilled our cranes have been a part of this exciting project. It’s definitely the highest point we’ve ever taken one of our Unic cranes to, luckily our operators that are working on site have a good head for heights,” said Gill Riley, GGR Group managing director.

 Source:

http://www.khl.com/magazines/international-cranes-and-specialized-transport/detail/item70419/UK’s-highest-Unic-on-Shard-duties/